Tampa Pictures In Vt, Plus Set List And Fan Reviews

Gerry gets in touch with his feminine side again for the show in Tampax last night.

I said the place was PAC...

After a well-deserved break, David Bowie returned to the live concert stage tonight with a show at the Tampa Bay PAC in Tampa, Florida.

Apart from the usual batch of great pictures from Erik and the set list, both of which I've already posted in the VT section, we have a couple of reviews from attendant BowieNetters, Mark and Gwnavere which I've posted beneath the set list below.

However, don't hold your breath for anything much from Saxonny who collapsed in an alcohol-induced blackout. Don't worry though kidz, she is apparently stable but still under observation.

Considerably more sober, or at least better-equipped to cope with what they put in to their mouths, were BowieNetters, Gwnavere, RaMOANa, Mark, goldviking, ladronic, iana, and yes, even Saxonny, all of whom contributed to a lesser or greater degree, including the sending in of the 26-song set list, officially-confirmed by the mildly curmudgeonly HNB:

(Encore)23 Hang On To Yourself 24 Five Years 25 Suffragette City 26 Ziggy Stardust

Here's a brief report from the very lovely Gwnavere, illustrated with an excellent shot from goldviking, preceded by a few lines from BowieNetter, Mark:

The Stereophonics supported tonight for the first time and I saw a little of them, what I did see was good but that all the people watching them were sat down, this scared me for the main event.

Then met the terrible trio, Saxonny Gwynavere and Bennie had a chat and went to me seat, looked around and thought this is going to be bad, these people are only here to sit down. Saw Saxonny standing at the side and went and chatted with her and also asked a door lady if we were ok to stand there, she said yes so the intro came on and we stayed there and the crowd stood up, then some other Gestapo door lady tried to move us so we split but I managed to stand for the whole show.

As for Bowie he was in brilliant form, very chatty, very funny. I thought his voice sounded hoarse when he was talking but the singing was brilliant, unfortunately a lot of the crowd only stood for the well known songs, the fact that China Girl was the most popular of the first half of the set says it all. For songs from Heathen and Reality they either sat or wandered out into the bar, even songs like The Supermen and Quicksand which were awesome got a similar response. It was my first time seeing him here in the States and the audience sucked, he deserved so much more for such a great show.

The encore of the four Ziggy songs blew the place down and I don't know that I have ever heard Ziggy Stardust sung better. I'm not even that bothered that Chelsea didn't get to the Champions League Final because of how good bowie was tonight!

So..Tampa, Tampa, Tampa.....rocked!

The venue was quaint and the acoustics were incredible. We slinked on in and took our seats, missing the Sterophonics completely (so, no review, yet for them), and made it in time to watch the roadies switch over. I could tell by the "ambience music" that the sound was going to be amazing...and then we waited.

WE GOT THE SCREENS! The venues might be getting more and more intimate and sometimes we miss out on the 'cat walks' that David loves/hates so much, but we still got the BIG BACK SCREENS complete with animations and such. I love the background..it's not necessary (it is about the music he gives), but it is a nice extra treat to the "long time fans that haven't seen him in years!".

The set list was trying to be jotted down, but instead we just watched Earl do his thing (the beau loved that-although when we cheered for Earl, I believe I heard a few RedNeck cries from the audience), Kat was looking and sounding spicey as ever (though the gutair she plays for The Superman does look a bit bigger than she does), Gail-no words for that woman but F****** amazing...and then the Irish bloke, Spooky - all smiles.

The band was in great well-rested form, less conversation from David than in New Orleans (where he was such a Chatty Cathy), but enough just the same. I believe Tampa got the title of Crazy Mother-f*****s and no expected jokes regarding his airport hotel.

The audience was a yuppie mix of 20-30 somethings primarily with a good dose of the older fans that have been there the whole time of his career, but regardless they all rocked together. The young faces in the audience teetered on their toes to get a glimpse of the new bod David sports - much different than the album covers they stole from their parents collection, and the older faces just smiled on with the varied comments, "He looks amazing", "Mom, he's hot", "He's old enough to be your dad".

The most memorable part of the show, out of the ordinary, was for a certain young lady down in front. During Heroes, a boyfriend hoisted up his lady and David leaned down and kissed her....right smack down on the "kisser". She was glowing and it was something I hadn't seen David do since the Glass Spider tour. Maybe I've missed it (doubt it), but now there's going to be one hell of a rush for the front row...for a chance at that again!

Either way, two enthusiastic sox up...and we're on the road to MIAMI!!!!

Thanx for that Mark and Gwn, hope Sax, Gwn's special friend, is feeling a little better soon.

A Reality Tour continues tomorrow night at the James L. Knight Centre in Miami, Florida.